Nusli Wadia’s ghost presence on Tata Motors board creates buzz at AGM

A question that cropped up at the Tata Motors AGM — why did Nusli Wadia’s name still figure as a company director on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website?

Britannia Industries promoter chairman Nusli Wadia’s boardroom presence, or the lack of it, are both newsworthy.

So naturally word from Wadia about an impending decision to step down from the packaged foods company’s board is a talking point. But so is his ghost presence on the board of a company that he didn’t quite part ways with amicably.

At the Tata Motors annual general meeting, held in Mumbai last week, one of the shareholders had a single question for the management team on stage, that included chairman N Chandrasekaran, CEO Guenter Butschek and group CFO P B Balaji — If Nusli Wadia was removed as a director from the Tata Motors board on December 22, 2016, why does his name still show up on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website as a company director? The question wasn’t answered.

A search on the website confirms the shareholder’s query. What makes the question interesting is the events surrounding Wadia’s removal from the board at the time.

Following Cyrus Mistry’s ouster as the Tata Sons chairman, Wadia had publicly supported Mistry. He subsequently had even sued Ratan Tata and the Tata Sons board for defamation. Right after, he was removed from the boards of three different Tata Group companies — Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors — through shareholder voting at extraordinary general meetings.

Of the three companies, only Tata Chemicals director list on the website is updated. Tata Steel as well as Tata Motors continue to list Wadia as a director.